(November 2009) This week there were 4 hearty souls that wanted to ride and we were fearful of the rain but hey when you have an invitation to have lunch in Washington you weather the storm. So we head out on Sunrise Blvd. headed for downtown Washington. No, not D.C. but CA. instead like the place where the toothless banjo player is sitting on a bench playing dueling banjos.

I have written about this place before as I have a few memories related to Washington and some of the inhabitants mostly past residents. There was a time when I was younger that I would drop down there to swim in the southfork of the Yuba, have a picnic or maybe visit the Washington hotel and bar for a visit with Harold and Emma Moneyhon who also owned the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley.

My brother Neal drove truck for George Dunlap for a few years and they had a contract to haul lumber from the Tahoe Sugerpine sawmill at the far end of town. I also hauled a few loads of lumber out myself in a truck that Elmer Harvey bought from Ed Garvey at Garveys truck dealership in Stockton. It was a red Kenworth with a white stripe and I was mighty proud to get that truck after driving the old GI 270 GMC WW II surplus gas rig. It was only a 150 Cummins with a C Brownie but it got the job done until I moved on to bigger and better trucks.

I brought it into Car Earls welding shop on the outskirts of Grass Valley where he set it up for hauling lumber with a new set of rolls on truck and trailer. At times, we would put on logging bunks to haul logs and I did that one year up in Graniteville where Speck Fuller had a logging show east of Graniteville where we would bring the logs back down to Jerry Dodges mill back down by Als corner on Tyler Foote Road.

While I was logging there we had to stay in Graniteville during the week to get more loads to the mill and then come home on weekends. Monday morning early I would head out to the logging show VIA going thru Washington up Gaston Rd, so Washington and Graniteville both are small little dots on the map but have a special place in my memories. I have written about both of them before, so I won't elaborate again but one of these days I am going to get the dirt bike out and go back on a ride to the past.

As I said , we took Sunrise and picked up 65 going north thru Lincoln and turned right on Wise Rd. to wind around the foothills headed for Auburn. We eventually caught Baxter Grade to Mt. Vernon to Joeger to Drycreek rd. Rode past the area they had a fire recently and saw that they were very busy rebuilding most of the buildings that were destroyed. Continued on Lake Arthur rd. to connect with Placer Hills Rd. that would bring us into Colfax more or less. We did touch a few other roads that would wind around to reconnect but while they are winding, they are sometimes similar to a road race course with all the twists and turns involved. We made a comfort stop in Colfax in the old part of town where they have a historical building next to the now closed Colfax Fruit Growers bldg that is now a strip mall.

The reason I made this stop was in February 1951 when I went down to the Presidio of San Francisco to take my pre-induction physical and then went home to Grass Valley to wait for induction into the Army I turned down two great job offers driving truck thinking I would be in a basic training group in two or three weeks. After a month of cooling my heels and no word from Uncle Sam, I decided to get a job loading boxcars in Colfax.

I believe it was Bobby Young, Robert Gere and myself that got hired at $ 1.25 an hour to do this job and there were a few weeks we made over $100.00 dollars cause we worked several double shifts. After one 8 hour shift we would go to a market get us some beer and cold cuts for sandwich makings then head over to the Bear river to swim and eat before pulling our second shift. It was hard work but we had a fun time working together. I could have been making twice that much driving truck, and after about two months and no call from Uncle Sam, I took one of those driving jobs. It took 13 months before the Army called me to come down to Fort Ord.

While we were in this old Heritage Museum looking around at some of the displays they had a table that was dedicated to pictures of local service men from WW II and Korea and some of the old uniforms and articles they could acquire.

I heard Sir Charles talking to this lady in charge telling her that I was a local boy who grew up close by and she cornered me and ask if I had a picture of myself in uniform? I said yes but I lived in Grass Valley at the time I went in the service and she replied that is close enough. She gave me her email address and told me to send her a picture with a little information about the outfit. This is what I sent her (right). Kenneth Kinder Battery B 602nd AAA Gun Battalion March 1952/54

After an extended rest stop, a few pictures and visiting we headed out on 174 going over towards Grass Valley until we reached Brunswick Rd. turned right to Idaho Maryland/ Banner Lavacap to connect with Red Dog rd. to drop down to Boulder St. in Nevada City.

Rode a few feet and caught Nevada Street where we turned right to climb up and see if there were any colors left. Not much luck as most had already fallen and we stopped for a few pictures before continuing on to Willow Valley Rd. that will wind around bypassing the main roads and take us up close to 5 mile house on hiway 20.

The road is nice to travel but does turn goat before it turns dirt. That is when I get chastised by Sir Charles for bringing them over a road like this. I knew he was joking cause he is the one who gets chewed out on a regular basis for doing just that. We turn east on 20 and travel a few miles up going past White Cloud Ranger station and campground until we see the scenic overlook and turn left on the road where the sign says Washington. Teichert construction is in the process of paving and repairing the road so we had a couple of guided tours by the truck that has the follow me sign. At the very worst switch back they had all the pavement removed and the soft, wet, slippery mud made for a fun transition between pavements. That along with a lot of leaves on the road built the pucker factor.

We rode on into town past the buildings to the bridge over the Southfork of the Yuba to take a few pictures of a very low on water river. The bridge did have some ice on the pavement but there was more rocks than water showing in the river bed.

Washington is an unincorporated community located in Nevada County, California. Washington is located on the banks of the South Fork of The Yuba River and has a population of approximately two hundred people. There is a hotel/bar and restaurant, grocery store, a one room schoolhouse that has educated students continuously for one hundred years, and two trailer park campgrounds

The population fluctuates seasonally and the town businesses rely on the tourist trade as the population increases in the summer. It was settled during the California Gold Rush in 1849 and produced a large amount of placer gold. Hard rock mines were established soon afterward and were very productive. Washington is the only settlement in the vicinity to have survived to this day. There remains today much evidence of placer gold mining, hydraulic mining, and hard rock mining. During the mining period there were a large number of Chinese living there. The river and streams are usually beautiful, relaxing and full of native trout, swimming is great along the river and the hills are fantastic to hike over.

An assortment of food grinders. No leftovers, just tomorrows menu.

We went back into town and looked around, took lots of pictures, visited with some of the locals, ate our lunch and finally rode out of Dodge headed back down to Sacramento with a smile on our faces........

 

Epilogue

I like stories like Ken's memories of what it was like around these parts many years ago. Sharing them brings more fond memories from others. Here's a couple of nostalgic responses.

"I didn't know this man, but he knew a couple of my friends: Bobby Young (deceased) and Bob Gere. I have a historical background with Washington: My maternal grandmother's people owned the original hotel there (it burned many years ago) and my great uncle prospected on a claim nearby, at a place called Poor Man's Creek. My paternal ancestors lived a few miles away in North Bloomfield (The Malakoff Diggings). Two of my aunts were born at a place called Ormond. Except for a couple of vague outlines of house foundations, nothing of this community remains; it can't even be called a ghost town." Terry

"Good one, Bonnie.  Even though I remember the Ken Kinder name, I don't think I ever knew him - or any of the other characters in the story. Washington, Graniteville, and those other places bring back fond memories.  Kohler and I used to fish the Yuba above Washington (never caught anything, but went back many times).  We liked to talk to the old prospectors living along the river and Keith liked to make pencil drawings of their shacks.  That was when the sawmill was still running (late 40's) and the town was booming.  Thanks for the post." Rich

Top

Back